6

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

roficiency, but, in order to obtain a pass, each scholar was
required to work correctly three out of the nine sums on the
paper he attempted. In the whole, our schools have stood
his test very well, those who attempted the highest grade,
which requires among other things a knowledge of vulgar and
decimal fractions, having fared worst, as I had anticipated.
About 50 names have been cut off from the fourth column
by this sifting process, if the numbers for 1875 be compared
with those given in 1874. But the numbers who passed in
the third paper, which includes questions in proportion,
practice, and interest, have actually increased by 100.

The progress in reading in the first two grades was also
satisfactory, though there were several conspicuous failures,
which are recorded in the special report of each school. As
proficiency in arithmetic is not only of great importance in
itself, but is a mechanism of being more accurately gauged than
are any of the other branches taught in primary schools, I
have thought it worth while to append a list placing in order
of merit the 18 schools that stand highest in arithmetic, as
ascertained by my last examination. In making out this list,
regard has been paid, not only to the number of passes, but
to the average number of sums worked correctly in each class.
Other elements, such as the relative numbers present, have
also been taken into account.

1st. Bridge-street Boys (1st Division). 2nd. St. Mary's
Girls (1st Division). 3rd. St. Mary's Boys. 4th. Haven-road
(1st Division). 5th. Hardy-street Girls (1st Division). 6th.
Motueka (1st Division). 7th. Hope. 8th. Cobden. 9th.
Richmond Boys. 10th. Lower Moutere. 11th. Spring Grove.
12th. Stoke. 13th. Westport. 14th. Brunnerton. 15th.
Lower Wakefield (1st Division). 16th. Hampden-street (1st
Division). 17th. Richmond Girls. 18th. Waimea West
Village.

Grammar.—Much of the time that was formerly wasted
in learning by hart dry rules—usually ill-understood, and
almost invariably misapplied in practice—is now more profi-
tably devoted to teaching the elements of composition. In
most of our schools letter writing is regularly practised, and
in the best schools the upper classes can reproduce very fairly
in writing the substance of the day's lesson. They can also
parse a sentence intelligently—"that is quite as much as
ought to be expected. The school life of the children is, as a
rule, too short to allow of much attention being paid to word-
dissecting. It is as much as our children can do to get their
scholars to put together such sentences, without violating the
few plain rules of grammar that may be taught without over-
burdening the memory.

Geography.—I begin to despair of seeing this subject
rationally taught. Our schools are supplied, not only with
large and costly wall-maps, but with hundreds of excellent
atlases for the use of the more advanced classes. Text books
which, though comparatively simple, contain ten times as much
as the children need learn, are also distributed without stint.
But, as a rule, the most advanced scholars really know very
little of Geography, and that little is, practically, almost worth-
less. The inveterate fault of teachers of elementary schools
seems to be this,—that they aim at giving a minute knowledge
of details, at the expense of the broader outlines. There is no
sense of proportion shown in the teaching. All the Geography
that is worth learning by heart by children of twelve years old
may be written down on a single sheet of foolscap. So much
—with oral lessons before the map—will give more than is ever
found for—certainly far more than I have ever received. It is
only fair to mention that in many schools some knowledge of
the geography of New Zealand and Australia has lately been
acquired by children who in times past wasted much time in
learning by heart the names of all the counties and county
towns in Great Britain and Ireland.

History.—The number of children under this head has fallen
from 819 in 1874 to 729. This diminution is hardly to be re-
gretted. The teaching of what was called History was formerly
too indiscriminate, the column for that subject being filled
with the names of any young children, who, when tested by a
few simple questions, broke down utterly. The scholars now
find text books at their own cost, and this has acted as a
salutary, though quite undesigned, check, History now being
rarely taken up by any scholars who are of an age to study
it with profit.

Spelling, which is taught mainly by dictation, but occasion-
ally also by transcription and spelling books, is one of the best
points in our schools. In very few can the spelling be called
bad—in most it is good—in some almost faultless.

School Registers and Quarterly Returns.—The strictures that
I found it necessary to pass last year upon the slovenly fashion
in which these documents were made out, have answered the
purpose completely. The school and class registers are now
kept with sufficient neatness; the quarterly returns, with very
few exceptions, being properly drawn up, and forwarded with
exemplary punctuality.

Discipline.—The discipline of our schools has been steadily
improving for several years. In nine cases out of ten the
children enter and leave school in an orderly and respectful
manner. In a small proportion of our schools—but a propor-
tion that is yearly becoming larger—the classes approach and
leave the master's desk with a military precision that really
leaves little done, besides being otherwise beneficial. Copying
from one another, which, not many years ago, was hardly
regarded by the children as an offence at all, is now compara-
tively rare, especially among the boys, and is generally
recognised as being disgraceful. But far too much talking is
still allowed, even in some of our best schools. It is not easy
to lay down a general rule on that subject, but I am inclined
to think that during certain kinds of work, such as at least as
writing and arithmetic, absolute silence might be enforced
without the exercise of undue severity. Mr. Petrie, one of the
Inspectors for Otago, goes even further than this, giving it as
his opinion "that absolute silence should always be maintained
where be insisted on in the school-room." Corporal punish-
ment, so far as I can ascertain, is neither frequent nor
excessive in the Nelson schools, hence I learn with regret that
it has been altogether prohibited by several Local Committees.
A discretionary power might, I think, be safely entrusted to
any master who is fit to be in the service at all. Undue
severity is not likely, for many reasons, to become a common
fault in our system of discipline, the chief danger lying in
quite an opposite direction.

Attendance and Holidays.—While reporting favorably of
the condition of the Provincial Schools, in nothing wishing I
wish it to be distinctly understood that these expressions of
satisfaction are subject to certain very important reservations.
All that I intend to convey in the foregoing review is that our
teachers, as a body, do quite as much as can fairly be expected
of them under the unfavorable conditions to which they are
subjected. The greatest drawback to the complete success of
our schools is, without question, the low rate of attendance.
We end a holiday routine this week, and the children, one with
another, have absented themselves from school every third
day, the absentees amounting to 34 per cent. of the whole.
Nor is this all. In addition to the usual holidays at the close
of each half-year, and the weekly Saturday's holiday, the school
holidays are becoming so frequent that several schools have
fallen short of the moderate quota of 212 school days in the
of five hours each, or 145 hours of actual school work during
the quarter. As comparatively few of our scholars have home
lessons, the shortness of the time spent in school is all the
more deplorable. I have had the curiosity to note down a few
of the excuses given for interrupting the school routine—an
interruption that is felt more or less as the teachers inform
me, in the shape of an increased irregularity of attendance
during the remainder of the week in which the holiday is
given. Our schools are constantly being closed it seems for
the following reasons, among others—because a match at foot-
ball or cricket is to be played in the neighborhood (not by the
scholars themselves, but by masters), or because a volunteer
review or a steeplechase is to take place—a minor list of
large proportion of the teachers regard these occasional
holidays with extreme disfavor, as in many cases they entail
a serious pecuniary loss, and in all an increase of trouble.

TOWN SCHOOLS.

Bridge-street: Boys, 1st Division.—Mr. Smith (45).—This
school, which has recently lost the valuable services of the
master who has taught it so efficiently for eleven years,
passed an excellent examination immediately before his depar-
ture. The arithmetic was, as usual, the strong point of the
teaching, and the boys did well in every other respect. The
good understanding that prevailed between master and
scholars, an understanding that was evidently not inconsistent
with the maintenance of strict discipline, was a very featuring
feature in this school.

Bridge-street: 2nd Division.—Mr. Sadd, Mr. Burn (late)
assistant (80).—The children here are so young, that their
knowledge is readily available. I was struck with the promp-
titude of the answers given to my questions on Geography and
History. Reading, throughout, is clear and distinct, that
of the lower classes, was last year very bad, being much
improved. I noticed, however, that in these classes some
extraordinary pains had been taken to make the boys sound
the initial "h," that the whole emphasis was thrown upon
words beginning with that letter. The effect of this was very
unpleasant. This fault exists in several other schools, but
not to the same extent. The writing is neat, and the
arithmetic of very fair quality, though in the first class some-
what too ambitious, as there is a tendency to overlap the work
of the upper division, which is not desirable. The discipline